Topic: Vol 4 Amazon Shipping Thread

[Benno123]

Just returned home from Wal Mart with volume 4 in hand!  When the wife watches Dancing with the Stars tonight, I'll be on the other TV watching the Boys!  I can hardly wait! (No pun intended!)

[Shemp27]

How does Wal-Mart get away with selling these early?

[Stooges#1]

How does Wal-Mart get away with selling these early?

They would have these in stock, maybe even as early as last week, so they can get away with stocking copies a day before the release date.

Mine shipped from Amazon on Monday afternoon so its the same deal with Wal-Mart.

[xraffle]

They would have these in stock, maybe even as early as last week, so they can get away with stocking copies a day before the release date.

Not many stores do that because they can get in trouble. How Walmart can do it without getting into trouble is beyond me. But from the looks of things, even though I'm buying my copy on the first day, it looks like I'll be the last person here to receive the set. It seems like most people here already received their copy.

[hiramhorwitz]

Amazon's price for Vol 4 has finally dropped to $16.99!  Buy two and get free shipping -- not a bad deal. 

[Justin T]

I stopped by my local Wall Mart after work this afternoon and picked up Volume 4 for 19.96.
Not bad of a deal for me, and I lucked out. There were only two copies left on the shelf.
They also still had copies of Vol 2 and Vol 3 for the same price.

I'm glad I didnt buy off Amazon this time, esp since they finaly lowered the price to 16.99 TODAY.
That is very unusual, I bet Amazon figured they would make alot of money with pre-orders and
then once it was out, they would lower the price and rake in even more with people who may
have waited for the price drop.

I can't wait to dig into the set, I'm sooo looking foward to watching "Micro Phonies".

[Shemp27]

Are you kidding me they lowered it today? according to their website if the price lowers e are entitled to a refund.

[Dunrobin]

Are you kidding me they lowered it today? according to their website if the price lowers e are entitled to a refund.

Only if the price goes down before your copy ships.  Apparently Amazon shipped out the pre-orders and then lowered the price, which means those of us who pre-ordered are just S.O.L.  Personally, I think that's dirty pool and contrary to my previous experiences with Amazon.  I may not pre-order Vol. 5 and look for it in the stores when it comes out, since so many of you seem to have no trouble finding copies.

[Shemp27]

Extremely dirty and underhanded of Amazon.com they could lie all they want and say its a Coincidence but its a very realy ploy to get more money out of stooge fans. They know how well these sets pre sale and wanted to make five bucks a pre order eww god this makes me sick guys!

[xraffle]

I may not pre-order Vol. 5 and look for it in the stores when it comes out, since so many of you seem to have no trouble finding copies.

I think more stores are carrying them now. With Volume 1, stores were hesitant to carry them due to bad sales of the themed and colorized DVDs. But now since stores are noticing how well these new sets sell, they're now carrying more copies. Based on what I saw with Volume 3, I'm assuming Best Buy should have some copies of Volume 4. I haven't checked there today. I bought mine from New York's J&R electronic store.

I wouldn't worry too much about spending the extra money. When you receive your set, you'll realize that it was money well spent. The restoration job on "Micro-Phonies" is worth the $22 alone, in my opinion. I'll post some comparison screenshots soon.

[Stooges#1]

Mine shipped from Phoenix, Wilmington and now its left its final port of call, Los Angeles. It should arrive in Melbourne, Australia on thursday morning (wednesday night US time) to hopefully be shipped in thursday afternoon.

[JazzBill]

Received mine in the mail today. I'm going to reconsider pre-ordering the next volume. I don't like being scamed. It's not the matter of a couple bucks, it's the principle of it.

[xraffle]

Received mine in the mail today. I'm going to reconsider pre-ordering the next volume. I don't like being scamed. It's not the matter of a couple bucks, it's the principle of it.

Well, if it makes anyone feel any better, I didn't get such a bargain on mine. Yeah, the price was $19.99, but with tax, it came out to $21.66. Now, add the extra train fare I had to pay to get to the store, which was $2. So, if you do the math, I paid a total of $23.66 for mine.

[Stooges#1]

This should blow yours out of the water X. I got the quickest shipping for my Stooge set, to be delivered to Australia within 1-2 days, and i paid a grand total of $47.75 

[Dunrobin]

This should blow yours out of the water X. I got the quickest shipping for my Stooge set, to be delivered to Australia within 1-2 days, and i paid a grand total of $47.75 

Is that Australian or US dollars?  If Australian, that converts to US$33.80, which is still high but not that bad considering the shipping, but if that is US$47.75 all I can say is ouch!

[Dunrobin]

I wouldn't worry too much about spending the extra money. When you receive your set, you'll realize that it was money well spent. The restoration job on "Micro-Phonies" is worth the $22 alone, in my opinion. I'll post some comparison screenshots soon.

It's not just the $5; it's the fact that they held off dropping the price until after they shipped the pre-orders, which may be legitimate in regards to the terms of sale but it is just downright inconsiderate of loyal customers and it makes a mockery of their pricing "guarantee."  I've been a long time customer at Amazon.com and frankly I think this stunt was pretty underhanded and mean-spirited.   

I'll continue to use Amazon to buy books, since there aren't any really good bookstores near me, but I won't be pre-ordering DVDs from them any more.  I'm a fast learner; you only get to burn me once.

[JazzBill]

This should blow yours out of the water X. I got the quickest shipping for my Stooge set, to be delivered to Australia within 1-2 days, and i paid a grand total of $47.75 

Thats what I call being a true fan !

[Stooges#1]

Is that Australian or US dollars?  If Australian, that converts to US$33.80, which is still high but not that bad considering the shipping, but if that is US$47.75 all I can say is ouch!

$47.75 is US currency, sometimes Amazon gives me the Australian currency but most times its the US. Im just too scared to see what it converts to, as early as last month we were 90 cents to every US dollar (which would be $47US=about $51AUS) but because of the state of the economy we are 71 cents so $47US might be about $65AUS).. Its alot of money to be paying but when i want something as much as the Stooges sets i cant wait a 3-4 weeks which is the wait with the slowest shipping, even though it would only cost me about $10 in shipping.

[Stooges#1]

Thats what I call being a true fan !

Hey what can i say, i love the Stooges. As i get older i might learn to save my money and wait but for now i'll pay out of this world prices and laugh in 1-2 days. 

There are only about 5 volumes left and then im done with forking out a days wages to Amazon.

[locoboymakesgood]

Amazon discontinued their price-match guarantee eff. Sep 1st, so for those that pre-ordered my sympathies.

I've noticed since Vol. 2 came out that both Wal-Mart and Best Buy began carrying the sets, which is where I picked up Vol. 4 today with a nice 10% off coupon that's in-store. Came to less than $20 with tax.

[xraffle]

$47.75 is US currency, sometimes Amazon gives me the Australian currency but most times its the US. Im just too scared to see what it converts to, as early as last month we were 90 cents to every US dollar (which would be $47US=about $51AUS) but because of the state of the economy we are 71 cents so $47US might be about $65AUS).. Its alot of money to be paying but when i want something as much as the Stooges sets i cant wait a 3-4 weeks which is the wait with the slowest shipping, even though it would only cost me about $10 in shipping.

Whoa! I just passed out from hearing that amount. That's more than double of what I paid for my set. Yikes!

[Dunrobin]

It's not just the $5; it's the fact that they held off dropping the price until after they shipped the pre-orders, which may be legitimate in regards to the terms of sale but it is just downright inconsiderate of loyal customers and it makes a mockery of their pricing "guarantee."  I've been a long time customer at Amazon.com and frankly I think this stunt was pretty underhanded and mean-spirited.   

I'll continue to use Amazon to buy books, since there aren't any really good bookstores near me, but I won't be pre-ordering DVDs from them any more.  I'm a fast learner; you only get to burn me once.

It pays to complain.  After I posted the above, I decided I was annoyed enough to find the form on Amazon.com to contact them and complain:

10/07/08 17:18:18
Your Name:Rob
Order Id: xxx-xxxxxxx-xxxxxxx
Comments:I am writing to make a complaint about the price reduction on this item today.  I have been pre-ordering the Three Stooges Collection DVDs since you first start listing them, and on the first three volumes the price did indeed drop to $16.99 just as this one (vol. 4) did today.  With the previous orders the price was dropped BEFORE the pre-orders shipped, but this time the price wasn't lowered until AFTER the pre-orders shipped.  This seems rather underhanded and mean-spirited to me; it was inconsiderate of loyal customers, and it makes a mockery of your pricing "guarantee."

It's not really the $5 difference but rather the principle of the thing.  Frankly, such an experience makes me reluctant to bother pre-ordering anything from Amazon in the future.  I'd rather wait and see if I can buy items locally and save myself the shipping and the aggravation, or at least wait to see if Amazon is going to drop the price before I place an order.

I received the following reply about half an hour later:

Hello from Amazon.com.

Please let me apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced.

I investigated the situation and see that the current price for "Three Stooges Collection 4: 1943-1945 (2pc)" is $16.99.

I've requested a refund of $5.00 to your credit card. This amount represents the difference between the price you were charged and the current price. This refund should be processed within the next 7-10 days.

You may view completed refunds by clicking the "Your Account" link at the top of our website, then clicking "Go!" next to "open and recently shipped orders." Completed refunds will appear at the bottom of an individual order's summary page.

I hope this solution works for you. Thank you again for shopping at Amazon.com.

Although I'm still annoyed that I had to complain to get the $5 back, but the fact that they were quick to respond and make amends does make me think better of them.  If you pre-ordered from Amazon and got charged the original price of $21.99, you should contact them as well and ask for the $5 back.  Maybe if they have to issue a bunch of refunds they will be more careful next time.   

[xraffle]

Very nice!! Amazon does tend be very helpful when you complain to them. In the past when I complained, they've issued me a shipping refund or shipped items separately for no extra charge because some of my items were delayed. Of course, those weren't done until after I sent the compliant.

[Dunrobin]

Amazon discontinued their price-match guarantee eff. Sep 1st, so for those that pre-ordered my sympathies.

Not according to their site.  I recently pre-ordered the next Futurama movie due to release in November.  I just double-checked on the site and found their policy:

Pre-order Price Guarantee

Amazon.com's price for not-yet-released items sometimes changes between the time the item is listed for sale and the time it is released and shipped. Whenever you pre-order a book, CD, video, DVD, software, or video game, the price we charge when we ship it to you will be the lowest price offered by Amazon.com between the time you placed your order and the end of the day of the release date. A pre-order price guarantee message will appear on your Order Summary during the checkout process. If you use 1-Click ordering, pre-order price protection will be automatically applied. The order summary in Your Account will reflect the lowest price within 24 hours of the price change.

Terms and Conditions:

    * Pre-order Price Guarantee applies only to items sold by Amazon.com, and not to items (or prices) offered by other sellers on our site. Does not apply to any products purchased at Amazon.com's other sites, including Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.co.jp, Amazon.ca, or any other web site operated by Amazon.com or its affiliates.
    * Pre-order Price Guarantee applies only to not-yet-released books, CDs, videos, DVDs, software, and video games sold by Amazon.com. It does not apply to other product lines or to items that have already been released.
    * Pre-order Price Guarantee applies only to qualifying items displaying the offer message on their product detail pages. Items that do not display the offer message do not qualify, regardless of the nature of the items.
    * If your order enters the shipping process before the release date and the price is lowered before the end of the day of the release date, we will automatically refund your credit card for the difference between the price you were charged and the release-date price. If you did not use a credit card to pay for your order, please contact Customer Service.

[locoboymakesgood]

Ah, I thought the 30-day pricematch guarantee and pre-order price guarantee was the same thing.

I though the pre-order guarantee is if the price lowers at anytime during a pre-order, you will be charged the lower price. Since they lowered it on release day, you were golden. They pulled a fast one here and changed it AFTER it shipped.. which, like you said, seems a bit underhanded. In the old days, you'd be ok right away thanks to the 30-day pricematch but since they did away with that a firm e-mail seems to do the trick. I need to keep that in mind with future purchases.

It does pay to complain, though.